The Twelve Books of Christmas, January 3

For the 10th Day of Christmas, I have chosen one of my favorite Christmas stories:  "Christmas Moccasins" written and illustrated by Ray Buckley.  It is a Christmas story in that the gift given is on Christmas Eve.  but it is also a story of being wronged and forgiving; it is a story of extravagance; it is a story of our baptismal vocation, and how difficult and necessary it is.

It is also a story told from a Native American perspective.  The grandmother in the story is both steeped in the Christian faith, and also in the traditions of her community.  The story speaks about the particular way the grandmother prays, and also the value of the beautiful beaded moccasins she makes.

The story begins one winter as the grandmother and the boy are beat up by two teenagers as they walk in the woods.  The youths steal their coats and grandmother's moccasins.  The grandmother lost two toes to frostbite, walking home.

What will be their response?  What will they do?

This book is a Christmas book, but it's about more than Christmas.  It is about how faith can inhabit our whole lives, from one degree of glory to another.

The illustrations are also as gorgeous as the story.

The Twelve Books of Christmas, January 2

I thought for a long time before deciding on the book for today.  It is not a picture book, but a compilation of short stories for children, called "A Newbery Christmas."

 The stories in this book are by Newbery award winning authors like Madeline L'Engle, Lois Lenski, Katherine Paterson (my favorite), Eleanor Estes, and Rachel field.  Some are excerpts from longer books, such as Eleanor Estes book, "The Hundred Dresses", a story about a little Polish girl who is poor and made fun of and claims she has one hundred dresses in her closet.  It is a story not entirely about Christmas -- but it is a story about gifts in all of their varieties.

I first encountered Elizabeth Yates' lovely story, "Once in the Year" in this book, and then I found the original version.  Katherine Paterson has a story from one of her two (now out of print) books of Christmas stories.  Ms. Paterson originally wrote these stories for her husband, a Presbyterian minister, to read on Christmas eve.  The story in this collection is "Woodrow Kennington Works Practically a Miracle", about a boy having trouble with his little sister on Christmas Eve, and how exasperated he gets, and how mean he is to her, and how he breaks the TV set, and fixes it again and, well... I guess you just have to read it so see how Woodrow practically works a miracle on Christmas eve.

A Newbery Christmas is out of print, and it's a pity.  But the book is still available if you have a mind to look for it.  There are plenty of stories, and authors, to discover.  It is a book to read and savor over many days of Christmas, and many Christmases.

Some of the stories are overtly religious, (Paterson's) and some evoke memories of Santa and family celebrations.  Some bring us back to Christmases past.

P.S. this book does not have illustrations.

The Twelve Books of Christmas, January 1

For this 8th day of Christmas, I recommend a very simple Christmas book:  "The Nativity", with pictures by Julie Vivas.  It is simple because the text is the Christmas story from Luke.  It is unusual because the pictures are so bright and whimsical.  We don't often associate the word "Christmas" with "whimsy."  There is also a sort of ordinary-ness to the pictures.  The shepherds look unkempt.  The baby looks joyful, full of surprise at being born.  Mary and Joseph look like peasants, wearing ragged clothes.  There is a wonderful series of pictures near the beginning of Joseph trying to lift a very pregnant Mary onto a donkey.

Bethlehem looks over-crowded.  The shepherds who peer over the baby's crib look filled with wonder.

I can well imagine that some would prefer a more dignified and obviously reverent book about the nativity.  There is a place for the books where Mary and Joseph and Jesus are all wearing haloes, reminding us of their holiness.  But this book reminds us of their humanity.  Their ordinariness.

This is New Year's Day, as well as the 8th Day of Christmas.  This book invites me to see the grace of God in unexpected ways and unexpected places -- and unexpected people -- in the new year.

Today the year is new-born, filled with wonder and possibility.  Today look again into the eyes of the new-born Jesus, and be born into his life.

The Twelve Books of Christmas, December 31

On this 7th day of Christmas, I'm recommending a book called "The Miracle of Saint Nicholas" by Gloria Whelan, and illustrated by Judith Brown.  It is a story that takes place in post-Soviet Russia at Christmas-time.  A little boy named Alexi walks past the Church of St. Nicholas in in small village of Zeema.  He asks his babushka about the church, and she tells him stories about what Christmas was like when she was a little girl, before the soldiers came and closed the church.  Alexi has many questions for his babushka, including "What is an icon?"  "Why is the church closed?"  "Why can't we have Christmas in our church again?"

Babushka told Alexi that the church has been empty for 60 years.   The church has an empty altar now.  There is no cross, there are no candles, no bread and wine, no icon of St. Nicholas -- and no priest.  There were mice living in the church.  "It would take a miracle to open our church", she said.

But Alexi dreamed of Christmas at St. Nicholas.  And he worked hard to make it possible.  He swept and he cleaned and he made the church ready just in case the people would come, and just in case there could be worship on Christmas.

I will let you read the rest of the story yourself.  Gloria Wheelman's prose is evocative and poetic.  Judith Brown's detailed pastel illustrations help us enter the Orthodox culture of Russia.  This picture book is accessible to small children in its basic story, but its depth makes it compelling to readers of all ages.

I love to find books to give another's culture's experiences of the meaning of Christmas.  This book helps me understand the depth of the incarnation, in a country where faith was suppressed for a time, but did not ever die.

The Twelve Books of Christmas, December 30

Today is the 6th Day of Christmas.  Today's Christmas book is one that just came out this year.  It is called "Nativity", by Cynthia Rylant.  I saw it in an airport bookstore, and resisted temptation, but then decided that I just had to have it.

There are Christmas books that are unusual because they tell more of the Christmas story than you expect.  For example, I have an old book illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham, called "The Christ Child."  This book tells the Christmas story but it does not end when I think:  the book continues with the flight into Egypt and return afterwards.  These episodes are not usually featured in a Christmas book.  Usually you just get the manger and the baby, the shepherds and angels, and perhaps the wise men.

Nativity is unusual because of what it includes as well as what it leaves out.  The story is elliptical.  It begins, not with the manger, but with the shepherds and the angels who hear the good news, and come to visit the baby.  And after telling this portion of the Christmas story, Rylant shifts to one scene from Jesus' adult ministry:  portions of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.

"Blessed are the poor," Jesus says, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
"
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

That's all.  Just those two scenes from Jesus' life.

The humble birth -- and the one who preaches humility.
The meekness and poverty of the nativity  -- and the meek shall inherit the earth.

And as for being pure in heart -- have we, like the shepherds, been to the manger, and seen the baby?

Have we seen God?

Like I said, it is a very unusual Christmas book.

The Twelve Books of Christmas, December 28

This is the 4th Day of Christmas, and, for some of us, a day when we remember the Holy Innocents, those babies killed after Jesus was born, while Herod was looking for him.  So, today's recommendation is perhaps an unusual one, the book "Refuge".  This books touches on the beginning of the Christmas story, and tells all of it from the donkey's point of view.  The donkey brought the man and woman to Bethlehem, where they found refuge among strangers.  The shepherds and the angels came, of course, and then:  the man had a dream:  a dream of danger, and the little family was on the road again.

They pass the shepherds and sheep on the way, and they take comfort from one another until they reach their refuge:  Egypt.

It is really a simple and beautifully told story.  There are some things that are over-simplified, of course -- it sounds like the wise men came shortly after the shepherds, when in reality, that happened somewhat later.  But the focus of the story is that the Holy Family has to flee.

Most of the illustrations are in black and white, with flashes of color interspersed.  It tells a part of the story we don't usually think too much about.

But this is Christmas too:  Danger -- and Refuge. Telling this story helps keep our sentimentality in check, and remember that there are children all over the world who are still in danger, and families who still need refuge.